Last to Know
by Aaronna
Summary: Merlin didn't really try to keep it a secret, but somehow Morgana was the last to know. IDOM.


AN: Sorry for not updating any of my stories! Life has been crazy. I had my windshields broken, several important tests, more lab reports than I care to think about, dangerous neighbors, and I have been trying to pack up my belongings so I can move somewhere safer.

I took two exams today, so I wrote this to unwind. I how it is alright. I didn't put much time into it. 

Gwen was the second to know. After all, they were the best of friends. She was the one who got Merlin through her first cycle. The girl's mother had warned her, but having it happen while doing the Prince's laundry was not how the poor thing had imagined it would happen.

Poor Gwen found out in one of the worse ways. Finding her seemingly male friend with blood on his trousers. She had nearly panicked. She knew she had rambled a bit, but when Merlin grabbed her hands and said "I told you I was in disguise" she stopped. It all made sense after that.

She helped Merlin back to Gaius without anyone seeing them and was the one to break the news to the physician that she knew his ward's secret. Poor Merlin was miserable but he -she- kept insisting that she had work to do. Of course, she was immediately hit by a nasty cramp that doubled her over.

Gwen had to promise to make sure the girl's chores were done before she would lay down and rest. It didn't take her long to fall asleep, and that was Gwen left to tend to her new set of tasks. Thankfully Lady Morgana hadn't asked too many questions about why Merlin couldn't do his duties and allowed her maid to serve the prince for the day.

Arthur had not been too pleased to hear his new manservant was not going to be serving him for the next day or so. It was hard not to tell him his manservant was a young girl who was currently dealing with a large change in her life, but luckily, she was too busy to dwell on it.

But the end of the day, she truly pitied Merlin. The sheer number of tasks and range of duties assigned was madness. She thought Merlin must have been putting off tasks until she was told this was the servant's daily work load. How the poor girl managed it was a small miracle.

She almost wanted to reveal Merlin's secret just to get the poor thing's burden lightened, but it wasn't her's to tell. Instead, she worked as best she could to get it all done. Hopefully, the prince would see that it was unfair to give a new servant more to do than a well trained and experienced one could finish.

It wasn't until the illness began sweeping through the city that the prince found out about his servant's secret. He had seen Morgana's ladysmaid give Merlin the flowers, but he had thought them sweet on each other. He immediately knew he would be the laughing stock of the court when the truth finally come out.

He had been the one to go up to Merlin's room to check it for signs of a sorcerer. Instead, he found the signs his servant was a girl. It made perfect sense. He played as if he hadn't noticed and then made fun of the fact her room was a disaster.

When she tried to cover for Gwen by claiming to be a sorcerer, he panicked. He cared about her, so he couldn't let her throw her life away. Claiming she was in love with Morgana's maid was the only thing he could think of.

Weeks later when she drank that poison for him, he got angry. He was angry at Merlin for being so pigheadedly loyal, at his father for being so crass about a young girl's life, and that the person who had planted the poison. But most of all, he was angry at himself.

It wasn't until he was on his way back to Camelot that it dawned on him that he had just battled monsters and a witch to get a flower for his maid. It was like one of those fairytales written with all of those fancy drawings. But unlike those stories, he had no plans on kissing her in the end.

That would be like kissing Morgana! She was someone he cared about, but he felt protective of her, not in love with her! No. No kissing. Ever.

Over the years, most of Camelot found out that the Prince's servant was a she. Uther had figured it out during the tournament with the the magically cheating knight Valiant. The fact his son couldn't see it was disheartening, but he found out the prince knew when he let it slip after the girl drank the poisoned wine during the peace talks with Bayard.

Lancelot knew Merlin was a girl before he even saved her from the griffon. When others referred to her as a he, he said nothing. If Merlin wanted her magic and gender kept secret, he would respect her wishes.

Gwaine had doubted his lady sense when it first told him that the lanky thing behind the counter during the fight was a girl, but after a quick flirt, he was sure. Waking up in her bed had been a surprise, but having to save her from those two noble pigs who turned out to be those thugs from the tavern was a nice way to repay her.

Leon felt like an idiot for not noticing before, but he hardly even paid the prince's servant any mind before. She had been helping Gaius tend to the few of them that had survived the final battle with the dragon when she let it slip by wearing her nightgown when she checked on them during the night. When he brought it up to Arthur, the prince let all of the knights know she was off limits, just as Gwen was.

Elyan didn't know the servant know had come with the prince and his sister was the one Gwen had told him about when he practically accused the prince of using her. Gwen had said that the blonde had gone against his father to save a maid's life and now he was here to help her get her brother back. When the two of them were finally introduced, he wondered why she acted as if she was a man, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

Percival knew all about the girl hidden in plain sight as a boy long before they met in person. Lancelot talked about her a lot. The only girl he talked about more was blacksmith's daughter named Gwen. So when he met her, she was just herself and most people just assumed they knew things they really didn't. This didn't surprise him as much as it intrigued him.

Lord Agravaine hadn't known until after Uther's death that Arthur's servant was in fact a she. He assumed after his talk with his nephew about the subject that it was common knowledge he was served by a young woman. He never even thought to bring it up after that.

George didn't know what to say or think when he found out. He had been serving the king during the time Merlin was thought dead and met her the first time when he was assigned to teach her how to properly polish. He had been the one to help her to the physician's chambers when she nearly fainted. He hadn't been told to look away when Gaius removed her shirt to reveal her chemise that clung to her clearly feminine body. In the end, he just acted like a proper servant and kept his thoughts to himself.

Poor Mordred had been so confused when realized that Emrys was not a man like he had always imagined from the legends. It was never actually stated and he had assumed the first and second time they met that Merlin was male. It took him a long time to come to terms with it, but by then he knew he had done something to make her dislike him.

Princess Mithian had never considered the idea of Arthur's loyal friend and servant being a woman. She had envied Arthur's bond with Merlin, she had thought it brotherly. When Arthur said "She is right. This is no answer" and agreed to let Odin live, Mithian had assumed she had misheard.

It was that evening she went to it search of Merlin that she found the person she had thought of for over a year as a man, asleep behind the curtained off area of camp in her chemise under Gaius's careful watch. Things that had troubled her mind since their first meeting seemed to make sense. Comments, actions, words, they all made perfect sense now.

Through night, she helped the physician tend to Merlin's damaged throat and head. She had to wonder how someone who had been choked as badly as Merlin had managed to get to the tomb as quickly she had and talked her king out of killing a possible ally. And in the sizable lump on her head could not have helped the matter. The whole thing made the princess understand just how amazing Merlin was, woman or otherwise.

Morgana couldn't understand how she had missed something like the fact Merlin was a she all this time. Two years she had had a crush on Merlin. She felt daft now.

Now that she had Gwen's mind, she had plans for the hiding girl. A simple death would be too easy. Merlin needed to suffer. Not just for her numerous betrayals, but for making the last High Priestess look like a fool for being the last to know that King Arthur's best friend was a girl!


End file.
